Postmasters Pocket Landscape Funds

The small
grassy hill and handful of hedges around the United States Post Office in
Waverly, Maryland, isn’t much to look at. But federal prosecutors say that for
branch manager Richard L. Wright III, the grounds were a cash cow.

Authorities
filed criminal complaints against Wright, 46, of Essex, Maryland, and Kimberly
Parnell, 43, the manager of the Pikesville Post Office branch, accusing them of
collectively taking tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from landscape
and janitorial contractors who had been paid based on bogus invoices.